Research Guides: MARK 4800 (Sampson): Marketing Plan: Customers / Consumers

Customers / Consumers

Knowing about your potential customers (or consumers in general) is a crucial part of market research. Depending on the consumer variables, you may want to research geographical differences, demographics (age, gender, education, income, etc.), psychographic characteristics, and/or consumer attitudes, uses, or responses to a product/service.

The resources below will take you to the sources that may be able to answer such questions as:

What are customer buying habits, perceptions, motivations, beliefs, and attitudes toward the products/services currently available?
What specific requirements do they have that your product or service could provide?
Where do your target customers live?
How big is the market segment? How many potential customers might you have?
What is the estimated dollar value of the market segment? Is it expected to grow?

Statista This link opens in a new window
Online portal for statistics, quantitative data, and related information on consumer behaviour, buying habits, attitudes, and motivations. Data are collected and aggregated from public and licensed sources, including the consumer surveys conducted by Statista.

Passport This link opens in a new window
A global market research database produced by Euromonitor. It offers data and analyses on digital consumers and consumer lifestyles in over 100 countries including Canada, as well as survey results exploring consumer opinions, attitudes, and behaviors.

To locate reports about the consumers in Canada, click the Consumers tab located on the top of the homepage, and then Lifestyles. Click VIEW ALL at the bottom of the middle column and select Canada from the dropdown list of GEOGRAPHIES on the left sidebar.

Statistics Canada - Census Program
A great tool for sizing the market segment based on demographics. The 2016 Census Program includes the Census of Population, which offers a wide range of analysis, data, reference and geographical information according to topics, such as age and sex, education, housing, income, etc. The information is presented for various levels of geography, including provinces and territories, metropolitan areas, municipalities, and communities.

Vividata This link opens in a new window
It provides information on Canadians' usage of major product and service categories. Data includes user demographics, frequency of usage, preferred brands, retail stores, consumer attitudes, and media consumption.

SimplyAnalytics This link opens in a new window
Derived from the 2021 Census, the National Household Survey, and other official statistical sources, SimplyAnalytics aims to provide a comprehensive set of demographic data available for all geographic levels in Canada. You may use this tool to identify your target market and location for your product or service.It also includes Demographic Estimates and Projections, Household Spending, Nielsen PRIZM5 market segmentation, and the D&B Complete Canadian Company Database.
- The PRIZM5 Marketer's Handbook is available in the Support --> Data Documentation section
- PRIZM Canada Postal Code Lookup

ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
It provides full-text access to research studies and magazine articles on consumer behaviour.

Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
It provides full-text access to research studies and magazine articles on consumer behaviour.